A blog about weather, climate, and science. Occasionally, we'll post on other topics of interest.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Do We Properly Value the Storm Warning System?

Recently, I have spoken to a number of civic groups throughout the Midwest and asked the question, Do we as a society properly value the storm warning system?
I believe the answer is clearly "no." The National Weather Service budget keeps getting cut (no, not "cut" relative to inflation but actually cut). In that presentation, I talk about the instrumental systems -- essential for accurate forecasting -- that we will likely lose.

The meteorological infrastructure and storm warning systems are one of the few areas in the federal government where we get more than our money's worth. The NWS budget is 1/39th (no kidding!) the size of the budget of the Department of Homeland Security.

Where do you think we are getting the better value?

By the way, you are looking for a professional speaker (and they say I "talk the same as I write"), please contact Ms. Mindy Cook, the marketing director of Mike Smith Enterprises, LLC. Her email is mindy@mikesmithenterprises.com .

2 comments:

Hello, Do you have the hard numbers on the NWS budget cuts? I have been curious about this and attempting to piece together the numbers on the NOAA budget website are tricky, for me at least. What I come up with is: